Robust seed systems are central to sustainable food systems that are renewable, resilient, equitable, diverse, healthy, and interconnected. We also believe that there is an urgency to supporting community based and farmer managed seed systems in order to protect and enhance seed diversity.

The Global Alliance commissioned this Compendium, which includes an Opportunities Report by agricultural biodiversity researchers Emile Frison and Toby Hodgkin, as well as twelve commentaries from a diverse range of experts, including farmers, community activists, business representatives, researchers, and scientists to better understand where we could collectively focus our efforts to address this issue.

The compendium highlights:

• What is needed to protect and enhance community based seed systems;

• Threats to, and factors affecting, the preservation and maintenance of seed biodiversity;

• The social institutions and socio-economic factors that are supporting seed biodiversity;

• Good policy practice on, and barriers to, agricultural biodiversity embedded in legislation at international, national and regional levels; and,

• Key actors in agricultural biodiversity, funding gaps, and recommendations for strengthening community based efforts.